Tuesday, 8 May 2012

The Artwork Plumber

Things are full steam ahead here in e-One Studio. Everyone’s so busy that it’s still taking some time for me to really get to know the team, so I thought it best for me to get to know the man who helped me set up this blog.

He looks busy. Lets go bug him

The poor soul being forced to put up with me sits on the desk to my right. His name is Shahrul Nizam and he hails from Pantai Remis in the central state of Perak, Malaysia.

Sporting a grey denim jacket and a thin beard, Shahrul calls himself “The Artwork Plumber” for e-One Studio. Any artwork or marketing materials for the studio’s intellectual property (IP) is sent to him and he enhances them. How this is related to pipes and clogged sinks is beyond me but if that’s how the man thinks of himself who am I to argue with him?

ME: Industrial design? That’s way off from what you are doing now. How did you manage the change?

Shahrul: Well I was always interested in art so that helped. I am a self-taught digital artist - I dabbled in everything from 3d design to coding.

ME: Do you play games? What kind?-which is your favorite?

Shahrul: Before I was married, I spent a lot of time playing RPG’s such as Baldurs Gate, Diablo and Morrowind.

ME: I love Morrowind too! I thought the island of Vvanderfell they created was truly unique and not your run-of-the-mill fantasy setting.

Shahrul: Yeah, I didn’t enjoy Oblivion too much but I got the same good feeling when playing Skyrim though. I even felt the ambient sounds and music of Skyrim was a reach back to Morrowind.

However these days I just play fast paced games like DoTA and some browser games.

I guess I would have to say that Baldurs Gate 2 was my most favourite game. I had initially bought it on a spur of the moment; without knowing much about the game. A very random buy. I played it for a while, got bored and left it. After a year, I loaded it up again and really got in to it. It certainly deserves its place as one of the greatest PC RPG’s ever created.

Shahrul: I think everyone loved how he busted out of the prison. That was really inspiring. How the main character Andy, devised an escape plan with the few options he had and stuck with the plan for years and years.

That's incredible perseverance.

Andy had a good set of friends in prison who unsuspectingly helped him escape by providing him with the tools and support to achieve his goal. Andy got out on his own but never forgot his buddy's, and they were happy for him. I guess they realized how they helped and the events that transpired after Andy's escape gave them hope. They were his family after all.

Shahrul is not impressed with me having my finger on the lens when taking this shot

Movies are inspiring stories about other people; fictional or real but nothing compares to real life. The battle field is here and now. Did you here that a blind activist in China escaped from confinement recently? Imagine that! A real life Andy Dufresne. These stories and people keeps me inspired and motivated to do what I do.

We spoke some more but there is only so much you can learn about a person in a day. I will surely be writing more about our office “plumber” as I spend my days and experiences with him in e-One.

To sign off this post I asked Shahrul to share with me his favourite quote. It’s from Eleanor Roosevelt;

“The Future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”